Troy Pierce

Hailing originally from Indiana, Troy Pierce got hooked at an early age by the classic techno sounds of nearby Detroit. However, when he decamped to New York, he found that not nearly as many people in the big city were similarly smitten. A move overseas to Berlin, the minimal techno mecca, finally set things right. His DJing and production style, based on a sparse, bubbly percolation, attracted that scene's leading lights. Eventually, with German minimal queen Magda and Canadian Marc Houle, he formed the group Run Stop Restore and scored a place on the elite MINUS label roster.

And while punters' tastes may be moving away from the whole scarf-wearing, über-minimal thing, Pierce remains unfazed. "I think dance music will continue to evolve and mutate into new and ever more interesting sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub genres. 'Minimal' was always a label I felt didn't apply anyway, so if there is a backlash, cool — we won't have to use that word any more."

As a producer, Pierce is most excited about an upcoming album for MINUS under the alias Louderbach. It's due out at the end of April. "It's quite a leap for a MINUS release," he says. "There are a lot of vocals, and the songs are more like 'songs' and less like techno tracks."